Theory Tuesdays is a non-academic platform for theoretical discussion founded, organized and coordinated by artist Philip Matesic since 2009. Participants read beforehand then discuss contemporary art, design, literary, cultural and critical theory texts on a weekly basis, with the texts selected and introduced each week by a different person. The platform has operated under this “Each One, Teach One“ philosophy since its conception.

Session 152: “Boring Formless Nonsense” by Eldritch Priest

During this Theory Tuesdays session, Stefan Wagner presented excerpts from the book “Boring Formless Nonsense: Experimental Music and The Aesthetics of Failure” by Eldritch Priest (Continuum Books, 2013).

“Boring Formless Nonsense intervenes in an aesthetics of failure that has largely been delimited by the visual arts and its avant-garde legacies. It focuses on contemporary experimental composition in which failure rubs elbows with the categories of chance, noise, and obscurity. In these works we hear failure anew. We hear boredom, formlessness, and nonsense in a way that gives new purchase to aesthetic, philosophical, and ethical questions that falter in their negative capability.” -Book Cover